Brezen Kolb GmbH

Those who stroll through Nuremberg will quickly notice that not only Nuremberg bratwurst is available on every corner, but also there are countless small pretzel stands scattered throughout the city. Although pretzels are not a Nuremberg specialty, the popularity of the tasty soft pretzels from the Kolb family pretzel dynasty have made a Kolb pretzel as popular a snack during a visit to Nuremberg as the local sausage in a bun.

True to the company's slogan "Lecker aus Leidenschaft" - "Delicious through Dedication", owners Jessica and Peter Kolb, who manage the family business together with Peter's mother Karin Wolfschmidt, go to work with enthusiasm every day. This is paying off: The Kolb pretzels are so popular, that, in the last few years, their production facility in the Fürther Straße reached its capacity limit. The answer was a new development and a one-of-a-kind pretzel drive-in, which opened its doors on October 13, 2014.

This Nuremberg family-owned company is now managed by the third generation. The grandparents of today's director Peter Kolb founded the firm. He is proud to report that his great-grandfather was also bakery owner and great-great-grandfather was a miller. "That's why we say: We have the flour in our blood", says Kolb.

For more than 30 years, the Kolb Company has concentrated exclusively on pretzel products. Today, one product in particular is the focus: The Kolb soft pretzel, which can be purchased at more than 26 pretzel stands throughout the city. The typically Franconian pretzels with their well-recognized taste, crispy texture and consistent high quality have made the company famous over the years. Peter Kolb and his wife Jessica have a goal, which is part of the long family tradition: Both value the fact that the family company grows slowly and organically. The Kolb pretzels have become so popular in Nuremberg that demands rose quickly to more than 30,000 daily and production had to be increased to keep up.

After nine months of construction, a new 4,000-m²-large production hall opened on October 13, 2014 in the Ostendstraße. Many years of project work went in to this complex object, which is a monument to Franconian pretzels. Integrated into the new facility is not only a new, two-story production hall, but also a spacious 80-seat café and bistro area and a 80-seat beer garden terrace on a 6,000-m²-site. The largest part is devoted to the bakery, which has a capacity of 6,000 pretzels per hour. The building has an environmentally-friendly design. Process heat from the baking ovens is reused. The special trick is to bake the pretzels in a stone oven. "We bake directly on the hot stone, as it creates a special crust on the bottom and brings the unique aromas into play", says Peter Kolb proudly. The large stone oven for the new production was delivered from Italy, as Italian experts in creating the best baking ovens for their delicious pizzas.

The company produces not only freshly-baked pretzels, but also raw, pre-processed "Blanks" that are frozen and sent to fans of Kolb pretzels all over Germany and "half-baked" versions complete with salt, which need only a brief baking to bring them to life. In the new Prezelt Café, everything focuses on pretzel products: On offer are three different sizes of pretzels (from mini to normal to the "kleine Wiesn'" Oktoberfest-sized pretzels weighing 160 grams), plaited pretzel loaves, pretzel breadsticks and preztel rolls in a variety of flavours. There are also sweet pretzels made of yeast dough, some covered with chocolate or filled with cream or pudding. In addition to all sorts of sweet and savory-filled and sandwich versions of pretzels, warm meals with a pretzel theme are also served: Schnitzel with pretzel-crumb crust, pretzel dumplings with a variety of sauces and salads with pretzel croutons.

Live cooking and an open kitchen are designed to increase the appetite of guests as much as the pretzel slide, a special construction which spirals up to the ceiling. This delivers fresh-from-the-oven baked pretzels to the sales room. The café includes Germany's first and only pretzel drive-in: Drivers can order from their vehicles and pick up their pretzels from a drive-in window.

Since October 2015, the family has added another Nuremberg specialty to its menu: Nuremberg "Elisenlebkuchen". It is the special relationship to gingerbread that every person from Nuremberg has that caused Peter Kolb to add it to the family product range.